According to Osho, the Bauls celebrate the body as the living shrine of God—the lamp that holds the flame—not as an end in itself. By honoring the body while remembering the indwelling 'guest,' they use it as a gate to deeper mysteries. This reverent celebration turns mere flesh into a vehicle of bliss and effortless rejoicing, unlike empty, peripheral body-worship.
Bauls treat the body like a holy home for the divine, so caring for it with awareness opens the door to the joy already inside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
The bauls celebrate their lives in their bodies. Could you say more about this? Americans cherish their bodies with health food, rolfing, massage, etc. But I don't think this is the same as the bauls. Could you please comment?
Money and the neighbors seem to be the only criterion to decide everything: their cars, their houses, their paintings, their decorations. People are having sauna baths in their bathrooms not because they love their bodies, not necessarily, but because it is the 'in' thing -- everybody has it. If you don't have it you look poor. If everybody has a house in the hills, you have to have it. You may not know how to enjoy the hills; you may be simply bored there. Or you may take your t.v. and your radio there and just listen to the same radio you were listening to at home, and watch the same t.v. program as you were watching at home. What difference does it make where you are sitting, the hills or in your own room? But others have it. A four-car garage is needed; others have it. You may not…
Question: THE MILK OF THE LIONESS IS SEEN AT ITS BEST WHEN STORED IN A GOLDEN CUP. WORSHIPPING PROSPERS IN A PROPER CONTAINER. THE LOVER WHO WHOLLY LOVES, CAN REACH REALITY, COMPREHENDING THE UNATTAINABLE MAN. THE SECRETS OF DEATH ARE REVEALED TO HIM WHILE HE IS FULLY ALIVE. WHAT DOES HE CARE FOR OTHER SHORES OF LIFE...? The methods of the Bauls are very simple. They say that if you can dance, many blocks will disappear from your being -- because when a person dances and really moves into dance, and becomes movement, then he becomes liquid. Have you not seen it? If you have seen somebody lost in dancing, can't you see it? that he is no longer solid? He is flowing. The solidity is gone; he has become liquid. This liquidity melts the blocks. So dancing is the Yoga of the Baul; he dances for hours together.
Osho, I no longer feel like staying in this body; I feel like taking leave of it. Yet for your sake I am pulled back from leaving. I cannot explain anything. I don’t even know what to write. Osho, what should I say?
Anand Bharti, the body is a temple. One who stands for the deity cannot be against the deity’s house. The Divine has made a dwelling in this body. Honor this body, accept it, and feel gratitude toward the Divine for it. But I know where this repeated impulse to leave the body comes from. For centuries you have been taught enmity toward the body. For centuries the same conditioning has been given: the body is the enemy; it must be destroyed, dropped; one must contrive never to be born in a body again. The body has been so vilified that naturally this conditioning has seeped into the blood, bones, flesh, and marrow. Yet the truth is exactly the opposite: it is the mind that is to be dropped, not the body. The mind is man-made; the body is a gift of God. The body is neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither…
Commit yourself to the earth while on the earth, my heart, if you wish to attain the unattainable man.
PLACE AT HIS FEET YOUR FLOWERS OF FEELINGS AND THE PRAYERS OF TEARS FLOODING YOUR EYES. THE MAN YOU SEEK IS EARTHED IN THE EARTH, DECEASED WHILE BEING. DYING WITH DEATH, YOU MUST LIVE TO SEEK.... When Moses reached on the mount where he encountered God, he saw a fire burning under a bush. And the bush was not burnt; the bush was as green as ever and flames were coming out of it. He could not believe his eyes. He started moving towards the bush; he was almost magnetized by what he saw. Then suddenly God shouted, "Moses! Take your shoes off! You are walking on holy ground." I have always loved that parable. But I say to you, not only on Mount Sinai, but wherever you are walking, you are walking on holy ground -- because all is His ground, because all is He. The Beloved is present…
Osho, as long as we are identified with the body, we don’t really care for it; we only use it as a means to gratify our ego. But as that identification lessens, a new recognition arises, a new feeling of friendship toward the body. Why this paradox?
As a person becomes more silent, the feeling of enmity begins to drop. It’s not a question of toward whom; the very vibration of hostility starts falling from within. A blissful person can feel only friendliness. As your meditation deepens, you will feel you have become friendly with everyone. Those who were yours remain yours; those who were strangers also become yours. The ignorant, however identified they may be with the body, still regard it as other. And however much they live in the body, they live with an inner enmity toward it. You may adorn the body as much as you like, yet inside there is a kind of hostility. You may not recognize it, but you are an enemy of the body. And that enmity can be fulfilled in two ways. One way is to make the body a means of indulgence. Then you will only destroy it.…